May 5, 2008
Are Business Majors the New Swing Vote?
The vast majority of college students pay attention to the presidential campaign, favor Barack Obama over both Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain, and say they will definitely vote in November, according to findings of an annual survey of students’ politics and civic interests that were released last week by the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy.
The institute, on California State University’s Monterey Bay campus, sponsored a survey last month of 1,000 students at four-year colleges across the country. Mr. Panetta, a nine-term Democratic congressman and former chief of staff to President Clinton, pointed out in a written statement that the survey was done “before the most recent round of news reports about Reverend Jeremiah Wright.”
A considerable proportion of students—43 percent—had voted or planned to vote in primaries, according to the report. It breaks down Democratic voters by several categories, finding that—although Mr. Obama leads Ms. Clinton in each group—his margins of victory are narrower among women, Asians, Northeasterners, and poorer students.
Business majors prefer Mr. Obama to Mr. McCain, but Mr. McCain to Ms. Clinton, the report says, and social-science and humanities students favor either Democratic candidate over Mr. McCain more strongly than do math and science students.
Over all, students said that Mr. McCain would deal with an international crisis better than would either Democratic candidate, but that Mr. Obama or Ms. Clinton would be better on the economy, health care, and college affordability.
The report also gives a glimpse into students’ thoughts on other issues. They strongly oppose the war in Iraq but are more concerned about the state of the economy, and two-thirds of them worry at least somewhat often about finding a good-paying, quality job.
Just over half of students said they were interested in working for a “socially responsible organization,” but only 31 percent said they were interested in teaching in a public school—down from 45 percent in 2006. Twenty-nine percent of students said they were interested in running for federal elected office someday.
Sara Lipka | Posted on Monday May 5, 2008 | PermalinkComments
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I’m a little tired, so you had me until that last line. Quite the yuck. What percentage of these students will actually run for “federal elected office someday”? .000001%? .000000001%?
If you don’t similarly question the other student responses, you ain’t a mountain man (sorry, you ain’t a mountain person).
— S. Britchky May 6, 01:41 AM #
Wonder what percentage will run for the border.
— Joseph F Foster May 6, 08:18 AM #
No!
— Droste May 6, 04:30 PM #